Bargaining Alert! — June 23, 2010

After 5 full days of bargaining, your bargaining team has little progress to report. In fact, in many areas your Association bargaining team is fighting District proposals which represent significant take-backs, particularly in the area of class size/trigger. We know that several of our surrounding districts have already settled contracts that bring significant salary and workload relief pieces to their members. We are very aware of the District’s budget limitations, so we are not asking for big monetary items in this package. Many of our proposals are cost neutral but provide workload relief or more time for our members. While the District continues to reference budgetary concerns, even in non-budgetary issues like time and language changes we are finding resistance.

Both the District and Association bargaining teams have voiced a strong desire to complete bargaining by this Friday, June 25th. We have managed to sign a small number of Tentative Agreements, none of which fall into areas which our membership has identified as top priorities. However, we in good conscience must work towards a settlement that you would be proud to ratify rather than a quick settlement that would not be ratified. We will continue to sit at the table to try to reach a final settlement with the District.

We will provide a further update after our final scheduled bargaining session on Friday, June 25th. Because of administrative vacations, we typically do not schedule bargaining sessions in July. After this Friday, it is likely that additional bargaining sessions will not be scheduled until early August. Please check your email for critical updates because we may need our members to organize to secure a fair settlement.